While I have been inspired by many school administrators and other district personnel, I have also been inspired by many classroom teachers. I would consider these educators to be leaders in education as well.

10 Most influential Teacher Bloggers

Joe Bower – Joe has opinions and isn’t shy to share them with the world. I find this very inspiring. In his blog, for the love of learning, he writes about many very important education topics, including, but not limited to, discipline, assessment, abolishing homework, and accountability. Joe also writes about grading and started something called The Grading Moratorium. His writing and view on this topic really affected me as a teacher. Here is my Grading Moratorium story here. I continued my grading journey here and here and here and here. Thank you, Joe, for helping me along my continuing journey. You can follow Joe on Twitter @joe_bower.

Aviva Dunsiger – Aviva is a Grade 1/2 teacher in Ancaster, Ontario. Her first blog can be found here and her wikispaces site here. I first came across Aviva when I attended the online Reform Symposium last July. She presented a workshop on Using Web 2.0 Tools in the Primary Classroom. You can read her post and see her Slideshare here. What amazed me about Aviva was that she was a primary teacher who was challenging herself and her students in ways I never dreamed possible when I taught grade 1. She was integrating technology into her classroom in ways I thought impossible for that age of student. Boy, was I ever mistaken. You can follow Aviva on Twitter @grade1.

Denise Krebs – Denise is a Grade 7 and 8 teacher in Iowa. You can find her blog, Dare to Care here and her class blog here. Denise also has a Children’s Literature Blog here. What connected me to Denise was her passion she has for Genius Hour. This is based on the idea that people are much more motivated and inspired when they are doing things they want to be doing, instead of doing what we want them to do. It is inspired by Daniel Pink’s book, Drive. I did my own take on Genius Hour with my 100 Minutes of Genius. There are a number of other inspiring educators who implement Genius Hour with their students as well. You can see them here on the Twitterchat for the new Genius Hour chat that has just started on Twitter. You can follow the Genius Hour chat on Twitter by following the #geniushour hashtag. You can follow Denise on Twitter @mrsdkrebs. Some other inspiring Genius Hour teachers include: @gallit_z, @hughtheteacher, @ksinden, and @JoyKirr. Here is a Genius Hour wiki that has been created to share their ideas.

Josh Stumpenhorst – Josh is a 6th grade Language Arts and Social Science teacher in suburban Chicago, IL. He just completed his second inspirational Innovation Day. Josh presented his Innovation Day story at the Reform Symposium last summer. You can see his promotional video here. You can’t helped but be inspired by Josh! You can follow Josh on Twitter @Stumpteacher.

Shelly Terrell– Shelly is another amazing educator I first came across at the Reform Symposium last summer. She was one of the organizers for the event. She is quite something. She always has a positive attitude, a smile on her face, and a willingness to help anyone and share her knowledge with everyone. I don’t think she actually needs sleep. Shelly is an English Language Teacher. Her blog can be found here. In addition, she provides free weekly webinars every Friday. In addition, Shelly travels around the world speaking about her passion – education. Here are a few of Shelly’s wikis: here and here and here and here. You can follow Shelly on Twitter @ShellTerrell.

David Wees– David is a Math and Science teacher and the Learning Specialist for Information Technology in his school. He works at Stratford Hall, an independent school in Vancouver. David’s blog is titled, 21st Century Educator. David has a passion toward Mathematics in the real world and finding ways for students to integrate numeracy into every day life. He’s got some great ideas! You can follow David on Twitter @davidwees.

Pernille Ripp writes in her blog titled, Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension. She is an elementary school teacher from Wisconsin, USA. Here is a list of other blogs Pernille writes. Pernille is an inspiring educator who shares her knowledge and her passion with her readers. She writes from her heart and always shares wonderful information, including lesson plans and lesson ideas. You can follow Pernille on Twitter @pernilleripp.

Richard Byrne is a high school History and Civics teacher from Maine, USA. He is the creator of the blog: Free Technology for Teachers. Just from that title, I’m sure you can understand the benefits Richard provides those in education. Richard includes free downloads and tutorial on various tech topics on his site. You can follow Richard on Twitter @rmbyrne.

Karen Lirenman – How can I not include my friend, previous colleague, and daughter’s Grade 1 teacher? I worked with Karen when I was the vice-principal at her school. She is an extremely hard-working teacher who has an amazing passion for her work and is inspired every day by her students. What she forgets though, is that her students are inspired by here daily as well. As a parent of a student in her class, I am so grateful she shares online so much of what they do in class. It really allows me to be in connection with what my daughter is doing at school, have real conversations about they things they do, and ask important questions. You can visit the class blog here. The students all have individual blogs as well. Yes, Grade 1 students with individual blogs. They are very motivated by them. You can find the individual blogs here (my daughter’s name is Trista). Karen also writes a professional blog, Learning and Sharing with Ms. Lirenman where she writes about her struggles and successes of all that goes on in her classroom. She shares some amazing ideas. She is very inspirational. You can follow Karen on Twitter @Lirenmanlearns.

As I mentioned earlier, this list is far from exhaustive. There are so many inspirational teachers who help to influence my thinking.

Who are some of the most influential-to-you teacher bloggers?

How do they influence your thinking or practise?

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About T. Henriksen

There are many things that define who I am as a person. First of all, I am a mother of 3 wonderful children! I can not express how fortunate we are to have our children in our life! Secondly, I am a Principal of an elementary school Langley, BC. Lastly, I am a person who loves photography. I gain so much enjoyment and satisfaction taking photos. I have learned a great deal about photography since I purchased my first dSLR in 2008. There is so much more to learn though! All three of these things help to describe who I am as a person, but also demonstrate my love of learning - nothing is ever stagnant with any of these. I love to learn!

Thank you so much for including me in this post and for all of your kind words too! Wow! I’m speechless … and that never happens. :) Being included alongside other such incredible bloggers that inspire me everyday is even more amazing. Thanks for being one of those incredible people too!

about.me

It's All About Learning

Video above: "What Student Achievement Means to Me"

Learner ~ Leader ~ Educator ~ Mother

Passionate about learning and sparking the learning in others, I believe in modelling my own learning. I feel strongly about developing relationships with students, parents, teachers, and my colleagues (near and far). It is through developing these relationships that the most profound learning can occur.

Currently, I am a Principal of K-7 school in Langley, BC, Canada where we have approximately 270 students who attend. In that population, we have a highly diverse population of students.

In my time as Principal and Vice-Principal (in Surrey, BC), I have been involved in numerous projects, including, but not limited to:

- Innovative Learning Design Team

- Aboriginal Laptop Project - name of project will be changed to TELAL this year - Technology Enhanced Learning for Aboriginal Learners.

- Digital Playground Sessions for staff members.

- Attendance Matters Project

- Formative Assessment Book Club and other Professional Book/Resource Chats

- Family Literacy Implementation

- School Blogs - including design, promotion, moderating, and updating.